Background: Observational and small randomized studies suggest that influenza vaccine may reduce future cardiovascular events in patients with cardiovascular disease. Methods: We conducted an investigator-initiated, randomized, double-blind trial to compare inactivated influenza vaccine with saline placebo administered shortly after myocardial infarction (MI) (99.7% of patients) or high-risk stable coronary heart disease (0.3%). The primary endpoint was the composite of all-cause death, MI, or stent thrombosis at 12 months. A hierarchical testing strategy was used for the key secondary endpoints: all-cause death, cardiovascular death, MI, and stent thrombosis. Results: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the data safety and monitoring board decided to halt the trial before attaining the prespecified sample size. Between October 1, 2016, and March 1, 2020, 2571 participants were randomized at 30 centers across eight countries; 1290 assigned to influenza vaccine and 1281 to placebo. Over the 12-month follow-up, the primary outcome occurred in 67 participants (5.3%) assigned influenza vaccine and 91 participants (7.2%) assigned placebo (hazard ratio, 0.72; 95% confidence interval, 0.52 to 0.99; P=0.040). Rates of all-cause death were 2.9% and 4.9% (hazard ratio, 0.59; 0.39 to 0.89; P=0.010), of cardiovascular death 2.7% and 4.5%, (hazard ratio, 0.59; 0.39 to 0.90; P=0.014), and of MI 2.0% and 2.4% (hazard ratio, 0.86; 0.50 to 1.46, P=0.57) in the influenza vaccine and placebo groups, respectively. Conclusions: Influenza vaccination early after an MI or in high-risk coronary heart disease resulted in a lower risk of a composite of all-cause death, MI, or stent thrombosis, as well as a lower risk of all-cause death and cardiovascular death at 12 months compared with placebo. Clinical Trial Registration: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov Unique identifier: NCT02831608

Antimicrobials are empirically used in COVID-19 patients resulting in increased antimicrobial resistance. Our objective was to assess antimicrobial use among suspected COVID-19 in-patients. From March to August 2020, we collected data from in-patients of 12 tertiary-level hospitals across Bangladesh. We identified suspected COVID-19 patients; collected information on antimicrobial received within 24 h before and on hospitalization; tested nasopharyngeal swab for SARS-CoV-2 using rRT-PCR. We used descriptive statistics and a regression model for data analysis. Among 1188 suspected COVID-19 patients, 69% were male, 40% had comorbidities, and 53% required oxygen. Antibiotics were used in 92% of patients, 47% within 24 h before, and 89% on admission. Patients also received antiviral (1%) and antiparasitic drugs (3%). Third-generation cephalosporin use was the highest (708; 60%), followed by macrolide (481; 40%), and the majority (853; 78%) who took antibiotics were SARS-CoV-2 negative. On admission, 77% mild and 94% moderately ill patients received antibiotics. Antibiotic use on admission was higher among severely ill patients (AOR = 11.7; 95% CI: 4.5–30.1) and those who received antibiotics within 24 h before hospital admission (AOR = 1.6; 95% CI: 1.0–2.5). Antimicrobial use was highly prevalent among suspected COVID-19 in-patients in Bangladesh. Initiating treatment with third-generation cephalosporin among mild to moderately ill patients was common. Promoting antimicrobial stewardship with monitoring is essential to prevent blanket antibiotic use, thereby mitigating antimicrobial resistance.

The WHO Essential Medicines List Access, Watch, and Reserve (AWaRe) classification could facilitate antibiotic stewardship and optimal use. In Bangladesh, data on antibiotic dispensing in pharmacies according to the AWaRe classification are scarce. We aimed to explore antibiotic dispensing pattern in pharmacies according to the WHO AWaRe classification to aid pharmacy-targeted national antibiotic stewardship program (ASP). From January to July 2021, we interviewed drug-sellers from randomly selected pharmacies and randomly selected customers attending the pharmacies. We collected data on demographics and medicines purchased. We classified the purchased antibiotics into the Access, Watch, and Reserve groups among 128 pharmacies surveyed, 98 (76.6%) were licensed; 61 (47.7%) drug-sellers had pharmacy training. Of 2686 customers interviewed; 580 (21.6%) purchased antibiotics. Among the 580 customers, 523 purchased one, 52 purchased two, and 5 purchased three courses of antibiotics (total 642 courses). Of the antibiotic courses, the Watch group accounted for the majority (344, 53.6%), followed by the Access (234, 36.4%) and Reserve (64, 10.0%) groups. Approximately half of the antibiotics (327/642, 50.9%) were purchased without a registered physician’s prescription. Dispensing of non-prescribed antibiotics was higher in the Access group (139/234, 59.4%), followed by Watch (160/344, 46.5%) and Reserve (28/64, 43.8%) groups. These findings highlight the need to implement strict policies and enforce existing laws, and pharmacy-targeted ASP focusing on proper dispensing practices to mitigate antimicrobial resistance in Bangladesh.

Introduction During the 2019 novel coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, limited data from several countries suggested reduced seasonal influenza viruses’ circulation. This was due to community mitigation measures implemented to control the pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We used sentinel surveillance data to identify changes in the 2020 influenza season compared with previous seasons in Bangladesh. Methods We used hospital-based influenza surveillance (HBIS) data of Bangladesh that are generated year-round and are population-representative severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) data for all age groups from seven public and two private tertiary care level hospitals data from 2016 to 2019. We applied the moving epidemic method (MEM) by using R language (v4.0.3), and MEM web applications (v2.14) on influenza-positive rates of SARI cases collected weekly to estimate an average seasonal influenza curve and establish epidemic thresholds. Results The 2016–2019 average season started on epi week 18 (95% CI: 15–25) and lasted 12.5 weeks (95% CI: 12–14 weeks) until week 30.5. The 2020 influenza season started on epi week 36 and ended at epi week 41, lasting for only five weeks. Therefore, influenza epidemic started 18 weeks later, was 7.5 weeks shorter, and was less intense than the average epidemic of the four previous years. The 2020 influenza season started on the same week when COVID-19 control measures were halted, and 13 weeks after the measures were relaxed. Conclusion Our findings suggest that seasonal influenza circulation in Bangladesh was delayed and less intense in 2020 than in previous years. Community mitigation measures may have contributed to this reduction of seasonal influenza transmission. These findings contribute to a limited but growing body of evidence that influenza seasons were altered globally in 2020.

BackgroundIn Bangladesh, pneumonia has a higher mortality among malnourished children aged <5 years. Evaluating pneumonia etiology among malnourished children may help improve empiric treatment guidelines. OPEN ACCESS Citation: Chowdhury F, Shahid ASMSB, Ghosh PK, Rahman M, Hassan M.Z, Akhtar Z, et al. (2020) Viral etiology of pneumonia among severely malnourished under-five children in an urban hospital, Bangladesh. PLoS ONE 15(2): e0228329.